Your Right to Know

The job of preparing and serving more than 150,000 meals a day to inmates in Ohio’s adult and
juvenile prisons could be turned over to a private company, saving taxpayers $16.2 million annually
under a Kasich administration plan.

A request for proposals will go out today for a privatized joint food-service contract for the
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction and the Department of Youth Services. The adult
prisons estimate saving $15 million a year, while youth prisons calculate a $1.2 million annual
reduction.

Up to 456 state jobs could be lost, but many employees could be offered positions with the
private contractor, officials at both agencies said. Exactly how many jobs that would be is
unknown.

The proposal, included in Gov. John Kasich’s budget released Monday, is vigorously opposed by
the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, the union representing 33,000 state workers,
including prison staff.

“We are going to use every possible tool at our disposal to fight this,” said OCSEA President
Christopher Mabe. “This is unfair, unsafe and hurts us all, and we will not stand for it. We cannot
afford to gamble a service as vital as food service, particularly given the rampant assaults on
staff and the near-riot at the private prison.”

The union made a counterproposal that officials said would save the state 11 percent on the
current cost of meals. But the Kasich administration decided to move forward with the privatization
plan.

“This has ramifications that are far-reaching, and frankly, pretty scary,” said Annie Person,
head of the union’s youth prison section. “This is as much about the security and safety of our
prisons and youth facilities as it is about jobs.”

Union officials pointed to a failed pilot food-service project at the Noble Correctional
Institution in 1998-2000 as an example of potential pitfalls of privatization. In that situation,
the state abandoned efforts to privatize food service, giving a contract back to the union after a
two-year experiment with Aramark Correctional Services. The pilot project was plagued with cost
overruns, and inmates nearly rioted because of complaints about both the quality and quantity of
food.

State prison spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said the agency is trying to save money without closing
prisons. She said prisons in Indiana and Kentucky have outsourced food service, and Michigan is not
far behind.